The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office announced a major undertaking this month to help inform Tennesseans about career and technical education (CTE).
CTE used to be known as vocational and technical education and its courses are designed to help students build specific skills needed for the jobs in their communities.
This week the Comptroller plans to release new data on how many students in Tennessee are taking CTE courses and what areas have the highest participation. In the coming weeks the Comptroller plans to launch an interactive dashboard and funding data.
The Comptroller hopes to these new resources help the public learn more about CTE and encourage interested students to consider potential pathways in this field.
“One goal of CTE is to reduce the gap between workforce needs and graduating students’ skills,” wrote principal research analyst Kim Potts. “Another goal is to help students learn about, experience, and consider potential careers and the education pathways that are needed to reach them.”
In Tennessee, CTE is available to students in middle schools, high schools, and postsecondary institutions, including Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology (TCATs), community colleges, and four-year colleges.
At the middle school level, CTE coursework includes introductory courses and is designed to provide students with a foundation for high school CTE courses.
At the high school level, CTE provides students with opportunities to explore a career while learning a set of technical and employability skills that integrate into or complement their academic studies. Many high school CTE programs are specifically designed to lead to additional training after high school that lead to postsecondary degrees or certificates, apprenticeships, industry credentials, or employment.
Tennessee school districts, TCATs, and community colleges provide CTE programs that are aligned with 16 nationally recognized career clusters.
These clusters represent 56 career pathways, also referred to as programs of study, that reflect statewide labor, economic, and postsecondary opportunities.
“Alignment between workforce needs, postsecondary opportunities, and the sequencing and progression of high school students’ CTE coursework is designed to make students’ eventual transition to the workforce or postsecondary education as seamless as possible,” said Potts.
Participating students may take single CTE courses, or they choose to take courses in a specific CTE program of study, while also fulfilling all other academic requirements to move from grade to grade and obtain a high school diploma.
Interest Growing in CTE
The Comptroller’s work with CTE follows considerable interest from Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly.
Governor Lee has touted investments in CTE including last year’s historic passage of the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) act. TISA provided additional funding and guidance for CTE programs.
This year members of the Tennessee General Assembly including Representative Tim Hicks (R-Gray) and Representative Chris Hurt (R-Halls) both proposed legislation to expand resources to CTE programs.
A recent poll from Tennesseans for Student Success in Davidson County found strong interest for expanding CTE programs even in the state’s largest city. That poll found more than 86 percent of voters support increasing funding for CTE programs centered around skilled trades and vocational education.
